


Mea Culpa 3

by TigereyesF



Series: Thranduil And Talia [3]
Category: Thranduil - Fandom
Genre: Adding More Tags As They Come To Mind, Author Responds To Comments, Bard's Still Suffering, Blame Jen, Comments Are Always Welcome, Cops, Daily Update Until Completion, Deceit, Drunk Talia, F/M, Fili And Kili Won't Stop Wrecking The Precinct, Heartbreak, Legolas Is Still In Love, Lies, Mixed Length Chapters, Patient Thranduil, She's Wild, Talia Wife And Mother, Talia's Still Singing Roxette's Songs, Tasha Is A Menace, Tasha's Two Years Old And Adorable, This Has Been Delayed Because Of Sexy Naked Angels, Thranduil Love, Thranduil Lust, Thranduil Sex, Violence, Why Is He So Gorgeous, criminals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:42:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29894415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigereyesF/pseuds/TigereyesF
Summary: Talia and Thranduil faced off against Azog, Bolg, and Saruman in parts 1 and 2. Part 3 sees them face a more powerful adversary, in the shape of someone who is masterminding multi-million dollar deals in the arms trade. The Oropherion couple have their own troubles to contend with before they can even consider another case, but a mass execution doesn't wait for them to sort their own marriage strife. Add a boisterous Tasha complete with her cursing and swearing into the mix, and the law-enforcing couple have no choice but to put their heads together and fix what's wrong.The Durinson brothers are still wrecking everything in sight, their uncle is still pulling his hair out, while Talia and Thranduil still can't keep their hands off each other...when they're not at war with one another. Lots of hot sex, lots of fights and arguments, and lots of shoot-outs and action.Plus Thranduil in his ever-stunning presence...
Relationships: Family - Relationship, Thranduil/Thranduil's Wife
Series: Thranduil And Talia [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1474163
Comments: 52
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

Thranduil smiled and nodded as two cops passed him on their way into the precinct. He held the door open and let his hand fall away as they passed inside. The parking lot was reasonably full, with various police and personal vehicles scattered around in their designated spaces. He crossed over to his SUV and beeped the alarm off.

A smile curved his mouth as he thought of Talia and Tasha waiting for him at home. His daughter was becoming more of a handful as each day passed, having turned two the previous month. Walking, running, climbing – everything attainable to a normal, healthy child of that age. And she wasn’t talking – she was arguing.

About everything.

Her temper was as fiery as her mother’s, her determination and stubbornness just as prevalent. Her looks may have been taken straight from her father, but her temperament was one hundred percent her mother’s. Everything Thranduil tried to put into place, she rebelled against, with style. Everything Talia tried to enforce, she completely ignored.

He chuckled to himself as he slid into the large car and started the engine. Pulling down the visor to block the direct sunlight from his eyes, he backed out and pulled out of the lot.

The streets were quiet as he passed through the centre of the town, although it was still reasonably early in the day. Most of the stores were open for trading, and several small groups of shoppers meandered around, perusing various wares set out on the sidewalks and peering through store windows.

The car turned left at the junction and eased down onto the west boulevard. The steering wheel was warm beneath his large hands as he guided the vehicle, with the sun having beat down on it for the few hours he’d been occupied in the precinct. Soft music drifted from the sound system. The air con blew a gentle cool breeze throughout the car, shifting the ends of his long hair as he drove.

His eyes darted to his cell as it chirped. Mounted on the dash, it allowed him to have a conversation without breaking the state laws or taking his hands off the wheel for more than the second it required to connect the call.

“Bard,” he said in a welcoming tone. “What’s up?”

“Good morning to you too, you lanky creation, and nothing,” his partner replied. His humour was prevalent in his voice. “I wanted to know if you remembered to sign off the paperwork for the Neilson arrest.”

“Of course I did; what do you take me for?” he shot back rhetorically. “And no, that does  _ not  _ require an answer, before you even begin to think of being clever.”

“Pity. I had several answers just queuing up in response,” the other man quipped. “Never mind – they’ll come handy on another occasion in the not-too-distant future. How’s the two Ts?”

The blonde’s mouth curved into a smile as he turned right. “Both ladies are well,” he replied. “Although the last time I saw Tasha, she was hell-bent on climbing inside the washing machine to catch the bad guys hiding in there.”

Bard’s deep chuckle filled the car. “Like mother, like daughter,” he noted. “Are you all coming over for supper tonight? Before Legolas and Tauriel decide they’ve had enough of you and take that vacation they’ve been talking about?”

“Yes. I promised we would. Is seven thirty acceptable?”

“Perfect. Have you told Talia about the kittens?”

Thranduil smirked as he signalled to turn again. “No, I have not,” he answered. “Do you think that my life would be worth living if I told her Pepsi had had a bunch of babies?? She’d have crashed through your front door armed with a load of cat carriers and kidnapped them all. I kid you not.”

His partner snorted with laughter. “Yeah…I kinda wondered why the entrance to my house hadn’t been wrecked already. She’ll love seeing them when you guys get here tonight. They’re thriving.”

“Good. Okay, I’m not far from the city centre, so I’ll clear off and we’ll see you tonight.”

“Stay safe, man.”

“Always do. You too,” he replied, and cut the connection. His partner and best friend was correct – Talia would go crazy when she discovered a bunch of kittens at the house. No doubt she’d wangle her way around him and end up with at the very least one tiny bundle being reserved to take home once old enough.

He shook his head as he pulled up outside the courthouse and put the car into park. The file of paperwork on the front passenger seat was slid towards him as he unbuckled his seat belt, and he stepped out into the warm sunshine. The door slammed behind his body and he walked towards the mountain of steps leading up into the huge building.

“Morning, Detective,” a uniformed officer greeted him in passing. “Beautiful day.”

“It sure is,” he agreed with a friendly smile. Several cops passed him as he ascended towards the main entrance, with most of them acknowledging him in one way or another. A smile, a nod of the head, a spoken word.

Thranduil was revered and deeply respected amongst his colleagues on the force. As was his wife, although she’d drifted away over the last year or so to concentrate on being a mother to Tasha, and only occasionally joined the team that operated under Thorin’s watchful eye. The guys on the team respected and admired her, knowing that she’d gone all-out to protect their lead detective at a time when he needed it most, and had captured his heart and soul in the process. Baby Tasha’s arrival had been welcomed by every one of them, making her the only baby in the state with around thirteen heavily-armed adopted uncles who were willing to die to protect her.

One of those uncles turned with a cheerful grin as he stepped into the cool interior of the courthouse. “Thranduil! Good to see you!”

He returned the grin and accepted the brief man-hug that was offered. “Good to see you too, Bofur,” he said, genuine warmth in his voice. “How’s your better half?”

The much smaller man had recently married, and was absolutely smitten with his new wife. “She’s becoming more beautiful each day,” he answered.

“I had the feeling that she might be,” Thranduil responded. “I assume that everyone is here already?”

“Yeah. All you have to do is sign in with the clerk and we should be good to go,” Bofur told him.

“I’ll be glad when this is all over and wrapped up.” Thranduil turned with him and they headed over for him to sign in, then proceeded up the stairs. “I feel like everything else is on hold until this degenerate is locked up for good.”

“I agree. The sooner the better, and we can go back to actively investigating other cases,” Bofur agreed. “This is starting to grate on my nerves, if I’m being honest. It would seem to be dragging on and on with no end in sight.”

“All good things come to those who wait,” the blonde told him. “And I have every confidence that this will end  _ very  _ quickly.”

“I hope you’re right,” was the muttered reply as the two officers stepped into the courtroom.

*****

Three hours later, and Thranduil’s cool had started to crack. The defence attorney cross-examined every single word he’d testified, pulling his version of facts to shreds and attacking from every conceivable angle, twisting things and questioning details minutely. Thranduil was a master of words though, and knew every tactic imaginable to the human brain, and maintained his calm, icy demeanour. To the untrained eye, not one single strand of long blonde hair had been ruffled. Inside though, the fires of hell were blazing, and nearing explosion by the time he stepped down from the stand.

“I’ll catch up with you at the precinct later,” he said to Bofur as he shouldered his way through those assembled for the trial. “I need some air.”

His colleague nodded silently, knowing that he was facing a difficult time himself when he took the stand after recess.

The double doors bounced open as long strides took Thranduil out into the hallway. Fresher air greeted him as he walked along the tiled floor, uplifting his mood after being restricted in the stagnant air of the courtroom. People milled around chatting, exchanging phone numbers, or going about their daily business. He crossed over to the wide stairway and began his descent, his eyes drawn to a couple standing over at the main desk below him.

His eyebrows came down in a frown as he recognised the male – Gandalf.

What was he doing in the courthouse?

And who was the woman hanging off his arm, laughing and joking with him in an intimate manner, like they were  _ really _ close?

He shook his head to himself as he stepped off the last step onto the marble floor and made his way towards the exit. Whoever the old man associated himself was none of his concern. They did look rather  _ friendly _ though.

He glanced towards them again as he walked.

The woman had short blonde hair cut into a stylish bob. Dark glasses hid her eyes as she turned her head towards her companion, giving him a profile view. A black leather biker’s jacket accompanied a pair of skin tight black pants.

His rapidly-processing attention span shifted to the curve of her shapely backside, and one eyebrow lifted.

It reminded him of Talia’s ass.

_ Talia. _

He’d woken that morning with her snuggled in tightly against his chest, with the ass in question pushed against one of the hardest erections he’d ever had. Subtle little wiggles in her sleep had made him groan aloud in bittersweet agony, until he’d been able to take it no more and had woken her with hungry kisses. The fuck of his life had followed, and he smiled as the memory came back to the front of his mind.

Casting a final glance towards the pair, he pushed against the heavy main door. The blonde trailed a hand slowly and teasingly down Gandalf’s back, her long red nails reflecting the overhead lights.

Everything happened at once.

A cacophony of screams rang out.

Bangs and gunfire rang out through the foyer of the courthouse.

People started running wildly in all directions.

Alarms shrieked in warning.

He whirled around and dropped to one knee, his weapon instantly drawn, his scope compromised by the two officers who had thrown themselves in front of him to protect him.

The blonde kicked Gandalf’s feet from beneath him and sent him crashing to the floor, where she planted one knee in between his shoulder blades to hold him still. Both hands gripped a powerful Mark XIX Desert Eagle .44 Magnum.

Thranduil’s mouth opened in shock as she fired three bullets one after the other, and three suited men facing away from her dropped instantly to the floor as the back of their heads were blown clean off. She shifted slightly and shot a fourth in between the eyes, and he too crashed to a lifeless heap.

The screaming and panicking continued.

Shots echoed around the cavernous entrance through the incessant noise.

The woman removed her knee from Gandalf who still lay prone on the floor, and squatted over him. Her body burled round and she fired another two shots. Her targets dropped. A split second later she lifted her arms and aimed for the top of the stairs, taking down another two. Her left hand flew from the weapon and she flipped a fresh magazine from the back pocket of her pants. It slammed home and she continued firing.

The scene had seemed to go on for a long time as Thranduil hunched down, watching in shock, whereas in reality, it was over within seconds.

An eerie silence descended.

Eleven blood-soaked bodies lay scattered around the otherwise pristine floor, and a steady flow of blood dripped down the stairs.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he watched from his position, mostly concealed behind the two officers. Having simultaneously leapt in front of him when the initial shots rang out, they’d effectively prevented him from being caught up in the whole eruption.

The woman removed her dark glasses, and eyes of blue fire swept the vicinity for any more potential threats. Satisfied that the danger was over, she spoke softly to Gandalf, before helping him to his feet.

Thranduil rolled away out of the doorway as the two officers urged him to get to safety, stunned. No wonder the woman’s ass had reminded him of Talia’s.

It  _ was  _ Talia.

*****

Several hours later, the heat of the day hadn’t started to relinquish its grip on the city as the SUV pulled into the driveway. The air was heavy with the promise of an incoming storm.

Thranduil switched off the engine and leaned back against his seat. His gaze absorbed the peaceful scene before him.

The house he and Talia had purchased the previous year had lived up to the potential it had promised. With some paintwork and repairs carried out, and extensive work on the garden, it looked comfortable and inviting. She’d immediately gone out and sourced every colour of flower she could get her hands on, and the garden was a rainbow of colours as he stared at it. Plants and flowers of every description provided a sea of blossoms, each one with a unique scent that filled the air. Peach roses climbed a wooden trellis that she’d stubbornly hammered together and sweet-talked him into placing beside the front door. The stained glass window panel in said door caught the light as his eyes moved to it, the stag they’d both chosen after long deliberation standing proud.

His heart was heavy.

Talia hadn’t worked in several months, and he’d been more than contented with that. She’d advised on several cases, and even relented against her previous decision to do some profiling for the team. Her days at home were spent with Tasha as she tried to instil some behavioural ground rules into the rebellious toddler. Evenings were spent relaxing and catching up on each other’s days, and the nights spent making love and growing even closer as their marriage grew in strength.

The weight in his heart increased.

Heaving a sigh from the pit of his soul, he opened his door and alighted the car. He swept his hair over one shoulder as he approached the house and let himself in.

“Hi babe!” Talia called.

He followed her voice, finding her in the kitchen applying a decorative icing design onto a freshly baked cake.

“How was your day?”

“Eventful,” he answered, dropping a brief kiss onto her upturned mouth as he passed. “How was yours?”

She grunted, squeezing the piping bag. “Tasha’s sprouted horns,” she replied. “She told me to piss off earlier.”

He snorted with involuntary amusement. “I did warn you about cursing in front of her,” he said, taking a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and closing the door. “She’s a sponge – she takes in everything.”

“Yeah, everything she shouldn’t,” she muttered. “Does this look ok to you?”

He leaned over her shoulder and frowned at her creation. “Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“I don’t know…I feel like it’s missing something,” she murmered thoughtfully. “How did your testimony go?”

“As expected,” he said. The bottle top was pinged between his middle finger and thumb as he spoke, landing with precision in the trash. “The attorney tore apart every single word I said and tried to manipulate everything, but I could see through his tactics.”

“Good. The guy’s a parasite. As long as Bofur stays true and doesn’t let the dude confuse him, it’ll be a slam-dunk case.” She tossed the piping bag into the sink and planted her hands on her hips. “I can’t do anything else with this. It’ll have to do.”

“It’s fine. You’re worried over nothing,” he said. “Is this what you’ve been doing all day?”

“Pretty much. This, and yanking Tasha down from the curtains,” she said wearily. “That kid is Spider-Baby these days.”

“Where is she?”

“Taking a nap.”

He sniffed and crossed around to the other side of the breakfast bar. “I’m surprised you didn’t go out, seeing as it’s been a beautiful day.” His eyes held hers as he swigged a mouthful of beer.

She shrugged. “It’s that time of year. This weather’s set to last for a few more weeks yet, so we can go out any time,” she told him. “Are you just out of court? Is Bofur testifying tomorrow?”

“No. The time schedule was changed. I testified this morning.” Ice blue eyes watched her for any reaction, but she didn’t bat an eyelid.

“Well at least it’s out of the way,” she said. She moved to head for the kettle, but his hand shot out and he grabbed her wrist in a bone-crushing grip.

“Do not lie to me,” he hissed angrily.

“What? Lie about what?” she asked in confusion. “Thranduil, what the hell’s got into you? Let me go, dammit…”

He tugged her over the counter towards himself. Fury radiated from his eyes as he glared at her, only inches away as he leaned down. “You have  _ not  _ been at home all day, playing housewife and mother.”

She shook her head as she struggled for words. “I think you’ve been out in the sun for too long,” she snapped. “Let go of me!”

He twisted her wrist and studied her nails. “Can you see that? That, my darling wife, is residual glue, from where one would apply acrylic nails.” His voice was low. “So where are they?”

She wrenched her arm free, rubbing her wrist as she glared at him. “I don’t wear acrylic fucking nails,” she retorted. “Seriously, you’ve lost the goddamned plot. What the fuck’s wrong with you?!”

“Stop telling me fucking lies!” he roared, making her jump. “For once in your life Talia, be fucking honest with me!”

“I would if I knew what the hell you were talking about!” she yelled back.

“The courthouse! The blonde wig! The eleven fucking targets you took down in between being all over Gandalf like a fucking disease!” he bellowed.

Her face turned ashen.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

Talia stepped back from her side of the breakfast bar, putting a little more space between them. Thranduil rose back to his full height, still glaring at her.

“Well?” he demanded after a long silence.

Her heart thumped erratically in her chest. She swallowed. “I was on a job detail,” she said finally.

One heavy eyebrow quirked.

“Gandalf had evidence he had to take into the courthouse,” she said, sighing and turning to lean one hip on the worktop. Her arms folded. “He’s tying up all the loose ends, and disappearing from the S&S unit.”

Likewise, her husband folded his arms across his wide chest, tucking the fingers on his free hand under his armpit.

“The evidence was the final piece of a puzzle on a case he’s been working on,” she continued. “And it’s a biggy. The threats were coming in hard and fast, from every angle. He asked me for a favour, so I did it.”

Cold ice blue eyes bored into hers. “And you never once thought to share that request with me?” he demanded.

She swallowed again. “I knew you wouldn’t-“

“You knew I wouldn’t agree so you went behind my back!” he roared, slamming the bottle and both hands onto the worktop and making her jump. “What the  _ fuck,  _ Talia?!”

Her teeth clenched in angry determination and stubbornness. “It was  _ one  _ final favour for a friend,” she spat. “He’s getting out. He’s starting a new life somewhere a million miles away from the life of the unit.”

“And what gave you the right to intervene in his grand scheme of things?” The question was toxic as he hurled it at her. “What higher authority decided that you had to be involved?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I  _ owe  _ Gandalf.  _ We  _ owe him. We’d never have got Bard back a year ago if he hadn’t stepped in to help! How can you be so damned judgemental?? The guy did us a favour, for chrissake!”

“Yes, and it suited him to do that favour,” he retorted. “Otherwise, I seriously doubt he’d have dirtied his hands with the whole sorry affair!”

“You’re being so cynical; this isn’t like you,” she said, shaking her head. “What’s really going on with this? I went undercover and played the part of a close companion, that’s all.”

His nostrils flared. “There were  _ eleven fucking shooters  _ in that courthouse,” he snarled. “Eleven! Against one! Have you even  _ considered  _ the fucking odds that were against you? Have you? Because I don’t think you have, Talia – in fact, I know for certain that you didn’t.”

He could almost physically see her hackles going up at his words.

“I don’t make fuck-ups,” she hissed. “I don’t make bad shoots. You know that better than anybody else, goddammit! I knew I’d be alright.”

“No! No, you didn’t, Talia, can’t you see that?” he yelled, frustrated. “You can  _ never  _ predict the outcome of a shoot-out, and you should know that! Anything could have gone wrong, anything could have turned just the tiniest fraction and caused a completely different result! What the fuck’s gotten into you?!”

“Are you questioning my professional ability?” she demanded incredulously.

“No! I’m questioning your fucking  _ loyalty _ ,” he spat back. “I’m questioning what part of our commitment to each other allows you to with-hold things like this, to go behind my back and then tell me a load of bullshit when I question you on it!”

“Maybe the part that knew you’d go off your head!” she screamed. “I couldn’t turn Gandalf down; we owe him far too much. And I’ve known him a long, long time.”

“And you’ve only known me for three years,” he decided. His arms folded once more and he leaned back against the units behind him. “Hardly a fair comparison, is it? Fifteen, sixteen years knowing him, as opposed to only three years knowing me? Never mind the fact that you live with me, you are married to me, you gave birth to my child, you fuck me on a regular basis..! Oh no, that doesn’t even begin to come into it!”

“Don’t be so fucking childish,” she said scornfully. “Grow up.”

“I am not the one who is displaying childish traits,” he snapped. “You deliberately chose not to inform me of what you had agreed to do. You looked into my eyes just minutes ago and lied about what you’d been doing all day. And you call  _ me  _ childish??”

Fury blazed in the depths of her dark blue eyes. “Maybe I didn’t tell you for this exact fucking reason,” she growled. “Maybe I knew you’d sprout three heads and act like an immature brat over the whole thing. Maybe I chose to do what I had to do quietly and get it over with. Ever think of that?!”

“Ever think of the fact that you might not have fucking  _ survived _ ?” he shot back. “Despite what you believe, Talia, you are  _ not  _ infallible. You are  _ not  _ bullet proof. You are  _ not  _ some unstoppable fucking machine!”

“No, but your fucking mouth is, right now,” she spat, furious. “It’s done, Thranduil. It’s finished. Over. Forget it.”

“Forget that my wife is an accomplished liar? Capable of going out on a shooting spree without turning a hair? More than happy to come back home and lie to my face about it?” he demanded. “And where, might I ask, was our daughter while you were off playing hero? Where was she?”

“She stayed with Tauriel,” she replied. “What, did you think I’d left her here alone or something?? Did you think I’d dumped her with a complete stranger? What’s going through your mind right now?”

“You don’t want to know what’s going through my fucking mind,” he hissed. His body shifted and he turned away from her, uncrossing his arms again and leaning his hands on the worktop as he stared out of the window. “Trust me, you do  _ not  _ want to know.”

“Maybe I don’t,” she retorted. “Not while you’re in this mood, anyway.”

He whipped back around and pinned her to the spot with his ice cold stare. “It never occurred to you why I’m in this frame of mind?” he demanded. “You have absolutely nothing to do with my frame of mind?”

Stubbornness glared back at him. “You’re blowing this right out of proportion,” she said after a long, heavy silence.

Seconds passed.

“Do you want to know what the crux of this is?” he asked finally. “It’s not the fact that you took off on some fucking suicidal mission, or ended eleven lives this morning. It’s the fact that you deliberately didn’t tell me. I could’ve advised you, been there for you as back-up, put safety measures in place, anything. But no – you had to be secretive and not utter a word about what you were going to do. You lay on your fucking back for me this morning and fucked me six ways from Sunday, and never said one motherfucking word!” His voice had risen to a roar by the time he stopped to breathe. “How many times have you played the vixen? Because you sure as hell looked pretty damned comfortable touching him up when I saw you!”

“Now is  _ not  _ the time for petty jealousy,” she said.

“No. You are right.” His voice had dropped. “It’s time to question just how committed you are to me as a person, as a lover, as a husband, when you are clearly more than comfortable holding things like this back from me. And lying to my face about it when questioned.”

Angry blue fire stared at equally angry blue ice.

“You’d have stopped me,” she said after a few moments.

“Maybe. Probably.”

She shook her head. “That wasn’t your decision to make.”

His hands slammed down onto the breakfast bar between them again. “As your husband, I think that I at least should have had  _ some  _ say in it!”

“This whole argument is pointless,” she tutted. “Absolutely fucking pointless.”

“Perhaps the trust on which our relationship is built on is pointless,” he retorted.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Explain that,” she challenged. Her arms folded again in a defensive pose.

He shrugged. “It speaks for itself. It appears that lying and being deceitful comes far too easily to you, and it doesn’t seem to trouble you.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” She shifted, bracing her hands on the breakfast bar. “Come on, Thranduil – out with it. What are you digging at here?”

His full mouth pursed. “I remember a time when I was under the assumption that you were a bar manager, new to the area, looking to settle down and make a life for yourself. Then I find out that you’re actually a trained killer with a score list that would rival the best street gangs in the state. Remember those days?”

The blood left her head and she visibly paled. “You bastard,” she hissed. “You complete and utter  _ bastard. _ ”

“If the cap fits,” he tossed back.

“You’ve spent all this time telling me to forget that and move past it, but how the fuck can I when you throw it in my face?” she screamed. “How the hell am I supposed to get over almost ruining your life when you can’t?? When you’re going to throw it at me because it suits you?!”

He leaned down, shortening the distance between them as he stared coldly at her. “Maybe if you didn’t give me good reason to, I wouldn’t.” His words were hard and emotionless. “I’m beginning to wonder if I know you even half as much as I thought I did.”

The room swayed briefly around her, and she clenched her jaw in an effort to gain control. He noticed her fingers tightening on the worktop in front of her, noticed her struggle to maintain balance over her emotions.

“You know how to hit below the belt,” she said after a long silence. “Good God, you’re a fucking master at it. The years you’ve spent in interrogation have served you well.”

One eyebrow twitched. “I have learned a thing or two.”

Her nostrils flared as she breathed hard. “I can’t do this.”

“Then don’t.”

His answer shocked her, and sent a pang of fear through her body.

“Ok, I won’t,” she said, and turned away from him. “Give Bard my apologies.”

The kitchen door slammed at her back as she stormed out.

Thranduil sighed deeply and lowered his head. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to play out. He lifted his head again and gazed up at the ceiling as her footsteps thundered overhead. A few minutes later she could be heard stomping back down the stairs, and the front door slammed. Seconds later the engine of her car revved aggressively, and the accompanying squeal of tyres told him she’d left the house.

He swiped his left arm out and the side of his hand slammed against the beer bottle. It shot off the worktop and smashed against the wall several feet away, exploding into countless tiny shards of glass and a small sea of foam.

*****

Bard sighed and dragged a hand through his hair as he sank into the armchair. “So where is she?”

His partner shrugged. “I don’t know.”

The dark haired man exhaled through his nose. “You need to find her, buddy.”

Thranduil tipped his head back and emptied the remainder of his wine down his throat, declining to answer.

“I’m serious, man. She and Tasha could be anywhere out there,” he persisted. “Where would she go with the little one?”

“I don’t know. She’s more resourceful than I give her credit for,” he replied. His gaze turned to the window. Night had fallen, covering the city in a blanket of darkness. The temperature had dropped, and his mood had followed suit, dropping even lower than before. “They’ll be safe, wherever they are. She wouldn’t put our child at risk.”

“No, she’s a good mother,” Bard agreed. “But this isn’t doing you guys any good, being apart like this. You need to straighten things out between you. You’ve been through absolute hell and back, and stayed strong throughout it all. Don’t let this be the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The empty wine glass twirled in the blonde’s fingers. “I said some unforgivable things to her,” he admitted after a pause.

His friend shook his head. “People say things in anger that they don’t mean.”

“Talia believes that the words which are spoken in anger are usually the truer ones,” he responded. “Those are the words that she’ll hold onto, not whatever I can say afterwards.”

“Then you, my friend, are a fool,” the reply came. “If you know that’s how she thinks, maybe you should’ve thought about what you said before it came out. And I’ll bet my bottom dollar that you threw her past at her.”

“With both hands,” he sighed.

“Have you reached out to Gandalf? Maybe she’s gone there.”

“No. He’s the last person I wish to speak with right now,” Thranduil said. “I fear I would say more things which I might live to regret, especially if he and Talia are in contact.”

Bard settled one ankle over the opposite knee and regarded his partner with thoughtful eyes. “Maybe you just have to bite the proverbial bullet and tuck your tail between your legs, Thran. You know how stubborn she can be, and I’ve always said that-“

“Yeah, I know – her inner killer doesn’t go away, she only goes to sleep,” he interrupted. “I know.” A deep sigh left him.

A silence descended over the pair.

“Dad?”

Both heads lifted as Legolas appeared in the doorway, hovering with uncertainty in his blue eyes.

“Uh…Tauriel and I are going to the movies,” he said. “Are you ok?”

Thranduil nodded. “I’m fine. Go and enjoy yourselves. Don’t worry about me.”

His son hesitated, glancing at the redhead who appeared at his side. “Alright. D’you want us to bring some takeout food when we come home?”

“No. Just look after yourselves.”

“Bye,” Tauriel said softly, and gently tugged Legolas away.

“I don’t know what the hell’s happened between Dad and Talia,” he whispered as they headed for the front door. “But you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.”

“Best let them sort it out for themselves,” she whispered back. “I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of either of them.”

“Me neither,” he agreed, and the couple slipped out and closed the door.

Back in the lounge, Thranduil had his head resting against the back of the couch, his eyes turned up towards the ceiling above him. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all,” he said. He tipped his head forward and looked at his partner. “But if I didn’t, what else would she do without telling me?”

Bard took a deep breath. “I don’t think your mistake was in bringing it up,” he said. “But more of throwing the past in her face. You  _ know  _ that almost broke her, Thran…what the hell were you thinking of? How many times has she hit rock bottom over the guilt of what you went through? Of having to with-hold the truth and risk losing everything because she loves you so damned much? Bloody hell, man – I just wish you’d thought it over before opening your mouth.”

“I just wanted to hurt her the way she’d hurt me by lying to my face when I came home,” he said softly. “But I never meant to hurt her this bad.”

His friend leaned forwards and lifted his coffee from the low table which sat in between them. “You’re going to have to take a huge-arsed chunk of humble pie when this settles down,” he advised. “And I don’t mean to throw at her either.”

“Smart-arse.” The half-empty wine bottle caught his eye and he refilled his glass. “What if it doesn’t settle down? What if I’ve gone too far in my anger and pushed her away for good?”

“Nah,” Bard scoffed. “No chance. She just needs time to let her fire burn itself out, that’s all. Besides, you know she’d never keep Tasha from you. So you’ll have a chance to make things right. You just need to decide which is more important; your pride, or your wife.”

Ice blue eyes lifted to meet brown ones.

“I’m not saying that it’s a comfortable decision to make, but it’s one that you might just have to buckle down and accept if you want to keep your marriage.”

“Of course I do. I just can’t stand the deceit…I don’t understand why she didn’t tell me,” he sighed.

“Because she knew you’d flip your lid and go off your rocker,” Bard replied. “Which is understandable and completely acceptable. But don’t forget the twelve, thirteen years she spent as a highly skilled assassin. That shit doesn’t just go away. It’s in her blood. We’ve had this discussion before, about how even the Dragon has to awaken every few hundred years. Hers has woken up again.”

“I do not think that her inner Dragon even sleeps anymore,” Thranduil said quietly. “I think that she’s always awake, perhaps under the illusion of sleep. But always aware, always alert, always ready to take action.”

“Maybe.”

A few healthy mouthfuls emptied the wine glass, and he thumped it down onto the polished table. “I need to try to get some rest,” he said. “Maybe things will look clearer in the morning. I’m sorry we missed the get-together at your place tonight.”

His partner waved him off impatiently as he took a swig from his coffee mug. “Forget it, you head-case. There’ll be plenty more nights. Don’t worry about it. Get some sleep – I’ll see myself out. Call me if you need anything.”

Thranduil watched him rise from the armchair and leave the house, his thoughts a jumbled, exhausted mess. He leaned his head back against the couch with a heartfelt sigh.

Maybe the coming morning would provide him with an answer.

Then again, maybe not.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE**

“Mama.”

Talia grunted and buried her face in the pillow.

“Mama.”

A small hand lifted hair away from her face.

“Mama.”

She sniffed and slowly lifted her head. “Hey, babygirl.”

Tasha’s ice blue eyes were inches away from her own. “Want Dada.”

She closed her eyes briefly. “Maybe not today, sweetheart,” she said. “But tomorrow, definitely.” She rolled over onto her back. It was too soon to see him. She was still hurting and angry over the heated exchange the previous day.

Her child immediately climbed up onto her stomach and sat astride her. “Want Dada,” she repeated, and began bouncing.

“OhmyGod,” Talia grunted. “Don’t do that Tasha, it hurts Mama. Come on, we’ll get showered and go for breakfast.” She lifted her and set her down onto the bed, and swung her legs out from under the quilt. The cheap hotel carpet felt more than a little threadbare against her toes as she got up and walked over to the bathroom.

Turning on the shower, she set out fresh towels and some clean clothing for her daughter, before grabbing her and stripping her pyjamas off.

“No. Clean,” she said firmly as the youngster began to shriek and wriggle.

“Not want shower – want Dada!”

“You will see Dada, but you have to get washed,” Talia insisted.

A mini water-fight ensued, as strong-willed mother showered equally strong-willed child. Shortly after, dressed in fresh clothing and playing contentedly on the floor with a pile of plastic bricks, the former stepped into the cubicle for a quick shower herself.

Before long, they were seated in the small diner across the street.

“Pancakes, Babygirl?” Talia questioned.

Tasha peered up at her, mid-perusal of a laminated menu that she couldn’t read. But her tiny finger ran down the sheet anyway, stopping at various items. “Pancakes,” she agreed.

“Orange juice?”

“Uh-huh. Then I see Dada?”

Her mother’s heart broke a little. “Dada’s working, sweetheart,” she said. “But you’ll see him when he’s not working, ok?”

White blonde waves bounced slightly as her child nodded after a hesitation. “I hungry.”

Talia smiled and signalled the waitress over to take their order.

*****

Hoisting Tasha up onto her hip, she pulled a wad of notes out of her jeans pocket. “Does Thranduil still come in every day for his coffee?” she asked.

The clerk nodded. “Sure. He’s usually in just before the lunchtime rush,” she replied.

“Ok. I’ll pay for it just now, just have it ready for him please,” she said, handing a few bills over. “Thanks, Dena.”

“No problem, Talia. You have yourself a nice day. You too, sweetie-pie.”

Tasha smiled angelically as her mother pocketed her change and walked away from the pay point. Talia glanced down at her as she shouldered the diner door open, unable to stop a grin from spreading across her face.

“Oh you’re the devil in disguise, young lady,” she laughed. “You can turn the charm on at light speed. The boys had better watch out when you get older.”

She crossed the street with the little one contented where she was on her hip, and unlocked her car as they approached it. Her ringing cell phone was pulled from her back pocket as she opened the rear door. “Thorin.”

“Morning, Agent Oropherion,” he quipped cheerfully in her ear. “How are you?”

“Fine,” she replied, leaning down to slide Tasha off her hip and onto her car seat. “You?”

“Can’t complain. Is Thranduil around?”

“Nope. I’m not at home at the moment,” she said. The seat belt snapped into place securely around the seat. “But you already know that.” The door slammed closed and she climbed into the driver’s seat. “Don’t fuck me around, Thorin. Get to the point.”

A deep sigh sounded in her ear. “I’m sorry, Talia,” he said.

She didn’t answer.

“You guys have had more than enough of your fair share of ups and downs; you don’t need this crap,” he said. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Stay out of it,” she replied. “It’s between me and Thranduil.”

“Ok. I’m asking as a friend, not as a boss,” he told her.

“And I appreciate the concern. But this is something that we need to work on, not something where we need a peace-maker in the middle,” she said. “No negotiators, no arbitrators, no mediators.”

“Point taken,” he answered.

She could hear genuine regret in his voice.

“Listen, there’s a team huddle at the precinct in half an hour – can you make it?”

She shook her head as she leaned her head back and gazed up at the interior of the vehicle. “I suppose so,” she said. “But I’m warning you now, Thorin – don’t pull any shit. My patience is non-existent right now; stay out of things.”

“No sweat, Talia. I promise. It’s just that I might need your input on a profile or two soon,” he assured her. “Nothing more. I’m not going to get in between two fighters at war; I’m not that dumb.”

“I would hope not,” she murmered. “Ok.” She snapped back to reality and hauled herself upright in the seat. “Half an hour. I’ll be there.”

“Ok. See ya then.”

She cut the call and tossed the cell onto the seat beside her, hesitating as she withdrew her hand. Under normal circumstances, Thranduil would be occupying that seat, more than likely with two takeaway coffees in his hands and a warm smile.

A grunt of frustration sounded and she turned the key in the ignition, glancing at her child in the back seat as she signalled and pulled away from the sidewalk.

What a fucking start to the day.

*****

The usual audial assault met her as she pushed the doors open to the squad room. Roars from the far corner came from Fili and Kili, who were jousting with two chairs, holding them by the backrests and jabbing the feet at one another. Bofur was having an argument into the phone held to his ear, with his free hand gesticulating wildly. Bombur was rummaging around in his rucksack, and Talia guessed he was hunting for a snack as his entire head was in the thing.

Dwalin was swearing at his computer screen, and Nori was typing frantically at his desk.

Bard was sitting on the far side of the room, facing her, and his head tipped up fractionally in silent acknowledgement of her presence before his eyes shifted to his partner.

Thranduil was seated across from him, with his back to her, and his head lifted slightly, but he didn’t turn.

He didn’t have to.

He knew she was there.

“Dada!” Tasha yelled, and broke free at a run. Chubby little legs carried her towards her father, and he swivelled in his seat to lift her up.

“Princess! Am I glad to see you,” he grinned, planting a noisy kiss on her cheek.

His daughter squealed with delight and promptly grabbed two fistfuls of his hair. “Dada, dada, dada…I got my dada!”

Talia deliberately looked away, taking a deep breath.

“Have you been behaving for Mama?” Thranduil asked.

“Mama made me shower!” she whispered theatrically, making Bard grin.

“And Mama  _ should  _ make you shower,” the blonde told her matter-of-factly. “We don’t like dirty little girls, do we?”

“Alright people, bust it up,” Thorin shouted over the noise as he appeared in the room from the far doorway leading towards his office. A thick file was slapped onto the desk between Thranduil and Bard. “Gather round, grab some wood and clean the earholes out. This is important.”

The two brothers had broken up their jousting match and returned to the group in the centre of the squad room. Kili lifted a chair and set it next to Thranduil, with a flourished wave for Talia to take it.

“Detective Oropherion,” he said with a grin.

“Fuck off, Kili,” she retorted, and deliberately stepped past it. Nori instantly shifted over on the edge of the desk he’d perched on, giving her room to sit next to him.

Thranduil’s eyes met hers briefly as she sat, but he looked again just as quickly.

“There’s been a multiple homicide that’s landed on our desks,” Thorin stated. His eyes travelled around those collected. “And it’s a mess. Downtown can’t make any headway on it, so we’ve managed to grab it before they call in the feds.”

“Why would the feds get involved?” Bard asked, leaning back and twirling his pen. “Is it their jurisdiction?”

“Nope. But if the local force can’t come up with anything, they’ll automatically step in due to the number of corpses,” his boss answered.

“How many?” Talia asked.

“Fourteen.”

A collective gasp circled.

“And all at the same time, in the same building,” he added. “Hence why the top dogs are keen to have closure on it. So far they’ve managed to keep it reasonably under wraps, but it can’t stay that way for much longer. Sooner or later, it’s gonna bust free, and we need to have some answers before it does.”

He opened the file and tossed a bunch of black and white photographs at her. She crossed one leg over the other as she flipped through them, her eyebrows coming down in a deep frown.

“Any suspects?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not a single one.”

“Anything left behind?” Thranduil asked.

Again, a negative shake. “Nothing. No DNA, no prints, no signature. It’s like they were killed by the Invisible Man.”

“They weren’t killed,” she said, tossing the photos back onto the desk, where Thranduil immediately picked them up and looked through them. “They were executed.”

“There’s a difference?!” Dwalin snorted.

“Yes. A massive difference. It changes the trajectory of who you’re looking for,” she said. “You can’t pin this on someone who seems to be good for it. You need to prove without a shadow of a doubt who did it, from the hand that took those lives, right back to whoever sanctioned it.”

“Are you implying that we wouldn’t normally be as thorough, under different circumstances?” Bofur accused.

“No. I’m saying you can’t leave room for error, not even the slightest fuck-up,” she corrected him. “This is a gangland-style execution, not a random slaughter or something which went wrong. This has been plotted and planned down to the smallest detail, and we need to do the same in finding out who’s behind it.”

Thorin nodded in agreement, his thoughtful gaze on the Oropherion toddler who was attempting to chew on the photos, despite her father’s evasive moving of them. “This is going to take all our resources,” he murmered, distracted. Sharp eyes lifted and focused on each member of his team. “All stops pulled out, people.”

“Of course,” Bard responded, as everyone stayed silent. “We wouldn’t deliver anything less than our best.”

“I know that,” Thorin sighed. “Talia – how much input can we expect from you on this?”

She deliberately ignored the increase in her heartbeat as Thranduil’s eyes met hers over Tasha’s head. “As much as I can give,” she answered. “I just need to be able to find somewhere safe for Tasha when the need arises.”

“You know that she is both welcome, and as safe as houses here with us, lass,” Balin said gently with a friendly smile. “I know that you cannot work one hundred percent as being a mother is your priority, but I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we will all keep an eye on the little one to allow both of you to work as needed.”

Heads around them nodded in unison.

Again, Thranduil’s eyes met hers, and he held her gaze for longer than a split second this time. “Thanks, guys,” he said, before looking around at them. “It means a lot to know that she’ll be looked after around the clock.”

“As she always will be,” Thorin put forward.

“Ok, where do you want us to start?” Nori asked in his usual timid manner.

Assessing eyes swept the room again. “I’m going to the scene, and I want you-“ he pointed at Thranduil “and you-“ then indicated Talia. “-with me. Bard, you run a background check on that address. I want every owner, anyone who’s rented and or leased even a single speck of dust from that property in the last ten years. Dwalin, you and Balin run everything on whatever he digs up. Fili? Kili? You two get down to the coroner’s office and get the autopsy reports and ballistics, and go through them with a fine toothcomb. Bombur, you man the phones and forward anything that can’t wait to Bofur.” He paused. “Is everyone clear?”

Heads nodded.

“Right, let’s get to it,” he said, lifting the file and handing it to Bard. “C’mon, guys.”

Talia slid off the desk and Thranduil rose from his seat. She closed the distance between them and kissed her daughter’s cheek.

“Be good for uncle Balin,” she told her.

The youngster grinned. “I good,” she promised.

“Yeah, right,” her mother muttered, turning away and pulling her gun from her waistband to check it. “Balin? Call me if there’s any problems.”

“I will,” he said, lifting one hand in a wave before taking the happy child from her father. “Stay safe.”

“Always do,” Thranduil replied. He stopped and waved Talia in front of him, and she passed him without a word.

Inwardly, she was fuming. Trust Thorin to stick the two of them on the same detail. The thought rolled around in her head as she followed the boss out of the squad room and down the stairs, very aware of Thranduil’s every step behind her. In reality, he’d done the right thing. Thranduil was his best detective, and the three of them collectively knew that she would get the best read on the environment. She wouldn’t view it from a detective’s point of view, but from the perspective of a trained killer.

Nobody spoke a word on the drive across town.

“Bloody hell…welcome to Hotel Californ-eye-ay,” Thorin muttered as he stepped out of the car once they’d arrived. “This place looks like the shits.”

Talia slid from the back seat and leaned against the vehicle. Her eyes flew over the property, her assertive brain collecting and analysing what she saw. Sliding both hands into the front pocket of her denims, she took a deep breath as her mind worked rapidly.

“Thoughts?” Thorin asked after a few moments of silence.

“Drug den,” she replied. “That’s my bet. Probably a cooking lab at some point.”

Thranduil glanced at her, but said nothing. Thorin walked towards the derelict, taped-off building and he followed, so she pushed herself away from the car and trailed behind them.

The sunlight shone on her husband’s long blonde hair as it flowed down his back, and she found herself mesmerised as she gazed at it. The silken strands lifted ever so slightly in the warm, gentle breeze, and her mind went back through time to that same hair trailing over her naked body as they’d made love. The feather-soft brush of it over her sensitive nipples; the gentle kiss of it sweeping over her inner thighs. The strong, warm hands that followed each movement; caressing, teasing, touching. The gentle, supple mouth that created untold bliss on her submissive body as he controlled every spark of pleasure that he inflicted on her.

“Talia?”

She snapped back to reality with a deep scowl, making Thorin’s eyebrows lift as he backed up a step. “What?”

“I thought we had lost you for a minute,” he said, with a dubious glance at Thranduil. “Are you ready to go inside, have a look around?”

“Ready when you are,” she answered, and drew her weapon. Her thumb snapped the safety off with a loud click, drawing the blonde’s eyes to her gun.

Again, he said nothing.

A few pigeons fluttered overhead as they stepped into the dark, dusty building, sending clouds of dust and dirt to the floor from the overhead beams on which they’d been perched. Rays of sunlight spilled in in shards, pooling on the floor and highlighting piles of trash.

Talia’s eyes lifted as she rapidly assessed their surroundings. Slow, unhurried footsteps carried the trio deeper inside, and utter silence surrounded them as they crept forwards.

A dark stain on the floor approximately thirty yards away caught her attention, and she broke away from the males to have a closer look. Thorin was busy snapping pictures on his phone, but Thranduil’s head turned to watch her leave. Concerned eyes followed her steps in silence.

She stopped at the stain, squatting down to get a closer look.

“Find anything useful?”

Thorin’s question made her jump, and she realised he stood a few feet from her.

“The bodies weren’t found straight away,” she replied.

He frowned. “How so?”

She pointed with the muzzle of the gun. “Vermin trails. Rats, probably. They’ll go to a corpse almost immediately, so it’s impossible at this stage to tell how long they were here before being found.”

“And the report clearly states that it was called in at the sound of multiple gunshots,” Thranduil noted aloud. “Somebody’s lying.”

“Well it sure as hell isn’t me. Not  _ this  _ time. I know my shit,” she snapped, and rose to her feet again.

Thorin saw the hurt that flashed across his detective’s face. “I don’t think that he meant-“

“Drop it, Thorin,” she interrupted. “I thought we were here to do a job. Let’s do it.” She moved away from the mark on the floor and headed up the dilapidated steps to the upper floor.

The two men exchanged looks and followed.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR**

“Run that; see if you can get anything from it,” Talia said, throwing a surgical glove onto the desk in front of Fili.

“What is it?” he asked, glancing from it to her and back again, before prodding it suspiciously with his pen.

“I got a suspect to crap in my glove,” she tossed over her shoulder. “Just run the thing.” The door swished closed behind her as she entered the washrooms. Taking a deep breath, she leaned her hands on the sink unit and gazed at herself in the mirror.

She missed Thranduil.

Really missed him.

And it hadn’t even been twenty four hours.

But she craved his presence. His touch. His warmth. His unique aroma. The feeling of knowing he was nearby, and that they were on the same wavelength. The whisper of his soft hair as it brushed her skin. His warm hand holding hers, or placed protectively and possessively on her thigh. His full, sensual mouth touching soft kisses to hers. His ice blue eyes that could read every thought that she had. His strong arms that held her tightly, whether it be in the throes of orgasm, or in comfort as she cried about something.

A deep sigh left her, and her head lowered as tears burned her eyes.

Talia needed her father.

_ She  _ needed her husband.

But she couldn’t back down and admit that she’d been wrong. She knew she had been, but admitting it to herself was a whole different ball game from admitting it to him. She  _ should  _ have told him when Gandalf reached out to her in desperation. She  _ should  _ have run their plans past him, maybe not so much for approval but for his acceptance. She  _ should  _ have had him on her side, rather than against her.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Shaking her head, she pushed herself away from the marble unit and went into the cubicle to use the amenities. Upon exiting, she washed her hands and dried them using the standard wall-mounted air dryer, wiping her still-damp palms on her jeans as she left the washroom.

“Any luck?”

Fili jumped in his chair. “It would help if I knew what I was looking at,” he told her over his shoulder.

“I thought it was a dove,” she told him.

“A what?” Kili asked in confusion, looking up from his side of the desk.

“Ecstasy,” she replied. The pill lay in the middle of the crumpled glove she’d handed over. “It definitely looks like one. I was kind of hoping for a clear fingerprint of sorts.”

“Ha. Leave it with me, Special Agent,” Fili said.

She slapped the back of his head as she departed. “I’m not a Feebleminded Federal Agent,” she told him. “Tashaaa!”

Her daughter looked up from where she sat at Balin’s desk, a sunny smile lighting her features. “Mama!” She wiggled off the chair and toddled over, arms held aloft. “Up!”

Her mother swept her up into her arms and made a show of kissing her cheeks. She giggled and shrieked with laughter, making everyone in the vicinity smile.

Thranduil even smiled slightly as he turned away and sat down at his desk.

“What did you get?” Bard asked.

“A decent lay-out of the crime scene,” he replied as he tapped his password into his laptop. “And a shitload of information that downtown didn’t pick up on in their report.”

“What?? Such as?”

“The bodies lay there for some time before being processed,” he answered. “Come on, you slow hunk of junk…that’s better.” He tapped on the keypad. “There were vermin trails around where each corpse had been. That tablet that Fili is pushing around his desk like it has a dose of rabies was found close by. And the coup de grâce? The shooter or shooters  _ did  _ leave something behind.”

Bard swivelled from side to side in his seat, twirling his pen between his fingertips. “Let me guess. A casing?”

“Got it in one, partner,” Thranduil said with a grin. “Thorin’s taken it down to processing as we speak. Whether we can obtain anything resembling a print is another matter, but it’s a start.”

“What was your impression, Talia?” Bard asked suddenly, whipping around to face his friend’s wife.

She halted in her teasing Tasha, and looked blankly at him.

“The scene,” he prompted.

Hugely aware of her husband sitting mere feet away from her, she swallowed. “Uh…it’s been a fuck-up from downtown,” she answered. “We need to get our own guys in there and process every inch of the place. We were only there maybe ten minutes, and found quite a lot that had been missed.” She swallowed again, forcing herself to tear her eyes away from Thranduil’s strong thighs as he shifted slightly in his chair.

“Dada,” Tasha said softly, making him look up.

His eyes softened as his daughter held her arms out, and pushed the laptop away. “Come here, baby,” he said quietly.

Talia handed her over, refusing to show how affected she was as his hands brushed hers in the transfer of their child. “I’m going out for a smoke,” she said, and abruptly left the squad room.

Bard followed her with his eyes. “When are you two going to bury the hatchet, and not in each other’s skulls?”

His direct question made Thranduil look away. “Leave it.”

“I’m sure there’s a saying somewhere about pride coming before a fall,” his partner muttered as he went back to his own computer. “That, and stubborn, bone-headed friends.”

“Some friends may not remain friends with this line of conversation,” the blonde grunted. “Tasha, give Dada back the pen, sweetheart.” He successfully swiped the writing implement from his child’s grasp, and was rewarded with a howl of disapproval.

“Got a partial, Blondie,” Thorin announced, sticking his head around the squad room door. He frowned. “Where’s your wife?”

“Outside, having a smoke,” he replied. “How good a print is it?”

His boss shrugged. “It’s something to work with,” he told him. “Kili – take that damned evidence bag off your head before I put your entire head and face in the thing, and seal it.”

His nephew sniggered and complied, shoving the empty bag into a drawer. “Grouch.”

“That shit is for that weird stuff that we call evidence, you cretin,” Thorin shot back. “Anything from the pill, Fili?”

The older of the brothers glanced up from peering through a magnifying glass. “I seriously doubt it, but I’m going to run it down to processing to see if they can spot anything under their microscopes.”

“Failing that, run it for a chemical breakdown,” his uncle said. “Maybe a compound signature, something like that. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Before you go with it, get a close-up of the stamped symbol. It might lead us somewhere.”

“Already running it,” Fili answered.

“The building was owned by a clothing manufacturer up until three years ago,” Bard spoke up. “It was sold at a rock-bottom price to a land developer after the company went into liquidation, and it’s been left to wrack and ruin ever since.”

Ice blue eyes studied him. “That’s too neat,” Thranduil said thoughtfully. He shook his head in determination. “I am not buying it.”

“You’re too suspicious,” Bofur said as he passed the desk with a call log sheet.

“It’s that suspicion that has solved many a case,” he retorted. He shifted Tasha onto a seat beside him and handed her a fabric book from the back pack Talia had left on the floor beside his desk. “Here you go, Princess.”

“Pin-sess,” she repeated.

Bard smiled to himself as he scrolled through pages on his screen. “I predict a future of you chasing boys away from your house with a shotgun,” he smirked.

“Very probably,” he agreed dryly. “Don’t worry. Multiple boxes of ammunition will be put aside well in advance.”

“I doubt that you’ll need it,” Bombur quipped on his way past with a share-sized bag of Doritos. “From the look I just saw on Talia’s face outside, I think that’ll be enough to scare any boys away.”

Thranduil and Bard exchanged looks.

“Go talk to her,” the dark haired man suggested quietly.

Thranduil hesitated, then motioned with his head for his partner to change seats with him so he’d be next to Tasha, and went in search of his wife. He found her sitting on the wall outside the precinct, already onto her second cigarette.

“Stressed?” he asked, coming to a stop and lowering himself to sit next to her.

“What do you think?” she replied.

He sighed quietly. “I am not the enemy, Talia, contrary to what you might think,” he said.

“No? Sure feels like it from where I’m sitting,” she retorted.

“I don’t want-“ he began.

“I didn’t want any of this shit,” she cut him off, flicking her cigarette butt away and rising to her feet. She glared down at him, almost coming undone at the look in his eyes as he gazed up at her, but managing to stay strong. “There’s a  _ lot  _ that I don’t want, but that’s life.”

He closed his eyes as she stalked past him and disappeared back into the precinct, pain ripping through his soul.

She was obviously still angry at their exchange the day before, and he knew that the best thing would be to give her space until that temper simmered down a little. Pushing her at this point would achieve nothing, except to push her further away. Stubborn and fiery by nature, he knew from experience that backing her into a corner would only succeed in making her come out fighting like a bull.

And he didn’t want that.

Their daughter needed both parents, and while he knew she’d never keep Tasha from him, he didn’t want her to pick up on the hostile undercurrent flowing between both adults. She was innocent and pure, and he wasn’t willing to drag her into a war that hadn’t eased off over the last twenty four hours.

He shoved both hands into his jeans pockets, staring out across the parking lot but seeing nothing.

*****

By the time he went back inside, Talia was nowhere in sight.

Bard lifted one eyebrow in question, but he shook his head as he took his partner’s seat. Several concerned glances went his way, but he ignored them and nobody dared say anything. Heads lowered as his colleagues went back to whatever they’d been doing.

In Thorin’s office, she was going full flow.

“I can’t do this, Thorin,” she insisted. “And it’s not fair that you ask me to.”

“What’s not fair is my team splitting solely because you two have had a lovers’ spat,” he shot back. “Where is the professionalism? Where is the emotionally detached member of my team when I need her?”

She poked her tongue against the inside of her cheek. “I can’t do this,” she repeated after a few moments.

“Then you’re not the Agent who I have come to know and depend on,” he hissed angrily. “Where did she go? What happened to her?”

“She stepped over her damned pride and left it behind her when she answered a call for help from a friend,” she snapped. “For God’s sake..!  _ Everybody’s  _ against me on this, everybody’s punishing me for the choice I made!”

Thorin gazed at her. “I am not punishing you, or going against you,” he said quietly. “I consider you as much a friend as I do your husband out there. But I  _ cannot  _ have a fractured team, Tal, and if you walk away from this, that’s exactly what it will be. We need you, we need your input.”

Her chest heaved as she breathed hard, fire in her eyes as she held his gaze. “I was wrong to help Gandalf and not tell Thranduil, but I don’t regret it,” she said finally. The venom had all but vanished from her voice. “I couldn’t stand back and watch things collapse, and that’s what would’ve happened.”

“I know this. I’m well aware that you took eleven shooters out. But I’m also aware that although he holds you in the highest esteem, he also values honesty, and that’s crippled him in the past,” he replied. “He worships you.”

“Not right now he doesn’t,” she whispered.

Her companion could see unshed tears sparkling in her eyes as she looked away.

“He threw what happened with the S&S unit in my face,” she added.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Perhaps not the smartest move he’s ever done,” he admitted. “But you still can’t take away from him the fact that he worries about you beyond human comprehension. Talia, listen to me for a minute. Sit down and listen to me.”

She grudgingly dropped her weight onto the plush couch and he sat on the corner of his desk, arms folded.

“Thranduil is one of the strongest guys I know, emotionally,” he told her. “Legolas was still very young when he came on the scene; he’d packed everything up and followed us lot out here to try to get over his first wife’s death. And it wasn’t easy, let me tell you. Having to be both parents to a young child and hold down a dangerous full-time job?” His head shook. “But he did it. And he became so self-reliant, it would make a hermit jealous. He needed nothing from anyone. Anything he needed, he provided for himself. He asked nothing of anyone. Then along  _ you  _ came.” He stopped.

“Are you saying I crumbled your strong warrior?” she asked flippantly.

“No. I’m saying that you showed him that there was something else in life. Something that he desperately wanted,  _ needed,  _ even if he didn’t know it at the time. I watched him fall under your spell, and fall hard. He changed. He found true love, a soul-mate, one that could match him step for step, one that could hold her own against him, and remain equal to him. One that wouldn’t shirk away from life and all the problems that come with it. One that would challenge him if she thought he was wrong, support him when things fell apart. And he’s terrified of losing her.”

Her eyes cast downwards as she absorbed his words. “I’m terrified of losing him,” she whispered.

He heard the catch in her words.

“Then  _ talk _ to him,” he pleaded. “Sort out whatever egotistical horseshit that’s going on between you both, and bond as one again. You’re so strong together, so well-suited it’s like you came out of the same mould. Dammit, Talia…I wish I could fix this for you both, I really do.”

“Only we can fix it,” she said. One foot moved as she traced an invisible pattern on the carpet at her feet. “But it hurts like hell, Thorin. It  _ really  _ cuts to the bone. Every fucking day I look into his eyes and I remember what he went through because of me. I can’t forget that.” A single tear slid down her cheek. “And he’s supported and encouraged me to move on and leave it in the past, then throws it at me like a missile when things go wrong. I can’t cope with that.”

His head tilted slightly in response. “Two strong warriors are better together than opposing each other,” he said softly. “Think about it.”

He pushed himself up from the desk and wandered around to the other side, adjusted the blinds to allow more light in, then sighed deeply as he sat down.

“Somebody has to back down,” he said. “It’s up to you two on who does it.”

She sniffed and dragged her hand across her cheek. “I know.”

“Stay with the team,” he suggested. “I’ll try to keep both of you apart if that helps. Personally I don’t think that it will – if it was up to me, I’d babysit Tasha and throw the two of you into a cell together and keep y’all locked up in there until you either make up or kill each other.”

She huffed softly in slight amusement.

“But as luxurious as my cells are, I can’t be having any bonking going on down there. Knowing you two, that’s exactly what would end up happening. You can do that shit in your own home, not in my cells, dammit.” A smile curved the corners of his mouth.

“You’re just a pervert,” she said with a shake of her head, a small smile appearing despite her mood.

“Me? Nah. I just remember with clarity how many times he’s been late for work since you guys got together,” he replied. “Before he met you, he was always early. Afterwards, he went through a spate of hauling his arse in through the door at least half an hour late, at least three times a week. And I’ve heard the friendly insults Bard throws at him at every opportunity.” His smile morphed into a grin.

“Oh shut up,” she sighed, rising to her feet. “Give me some time. Just give me some space, and some time.”

He nodded, and clasped his fingers together over his stomach. “I wait with baited breath,” he told her. “Now go and contribute something worthwhile to the solving of my case.”

“Thanks for the advice,” she said, giving him her middle finger as she left the office.

He tipped his head back and laughed heartily.

The sooner the Oropherion couple were back reading from the same page, the better all round. Better for his nerves, better for the ongoing case, and better for them.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE**

A week passed.

Talia couldn’t bring herself to drop her defences and throw herself at Thranduil’s feet and at his mercy. Likewise, he couldn’t either. He’d tried approaching her a few times, but gave up as she faced off against him with a stone cold resilience.

She was hurting.

He was hurting.

But nobody seemed to be able to sense a common ground. Tasha stayed with Talia, seeing her father daily as she went into the precinct with her mother, and spent her days charming him and everyone else around her. But come the end of each day, she disappeared until the following day.

Thranduil was tired.

His emotions were stretched to the limit, and the case was coming along in fits and starts. Bard’s discovery of the building’s owner had led nowhere, as the person hiding behind the development company didn’t seem to exist. The partial print hadn’t given way to anything, and the coroner’s office seemed to be giving the team the run around when it came to the autopsy reports.

The telephones in the bullpen were in use around the clock, with each detective chasing up leads and demanding to know where their requests were in the system. A couple of uniformed officers had joined the team, Bilbo and Alfrid, who everyone had known for years on the force. Thorin’s logic was the more, the merrier.

“You’re just fucking useless,” Talia spat, and slammed the receiver down. Kili’s coffee cup jumped and splashed some of the hot liquid over his paperwork with the impact.

“Jesus!” he exclaimed. “Calm down.”

“Piss off,” she muttered. “I swear to God, there’s so many red flags pinging up on this, it’s driving me insane.” Her gaze moved towards her daughter, her attention caught by her excited squealing and laughter.

Her eyes widened in horror, and she flew up from her seat. The chair flipped over and crashed to the floor, making everyone in the room jump.

“What the  _ fuck  _ are you doing?!” she roared at the officer behind the child.

“Bang-bang, Mama,” Tasha giggled. She gripped a Colt 1911 in her small hands.

Alfrid’s cheeks turned red. “It’s empty,” he explained. “I was just-“

“I don’t give a fuck!” she screamed. Fury flowed from her.

“Do  _ not  _ put a fucking gun in my daughter’s hands,” Thranduil bellowed, appearing at her side. He moved swiftly, easing her aside and approaching his child. “Give it to Dada,” he said softly.

“Bang-bang, Dada,” she chortled gleefully.

Talia crashed over the table as he carefully extracted the weapon from her tiny hands, landing on Alfrid’s chest and sending the two of them sprawling to the floor. Equipment flew off the desk and clattered to the floor around them, and Thranduil swept Tasha up into his arms out of harm’s way, cradling her against his chest with one arm as he tucked the gun into the back of his waistband.

His wife was knocking hell out of the officer, screaming and swearing at him. Fili, Kili, and Dwalin shot out of their seats and dived towards them. Alfrid screeched and yelled as each punch hit home. The three of them managed to drag her up, Fili receiving an elbow to the jaw for his efforts as she fought like a demon.

Thorin appeared in the doorway, took one look at the explosion kicking off in his squad room and heaved a weary sigh.

Dwalin ended up behind Talia with his arms up under her armpits, so she lifted both feet and booted Kili in the solar plexus, sending him flying backwards over the desk. Balin and Bofur jumped up and leapt aside, not wanting to be caught up in the carnage.

Thranduil quickly handed Tasha to Bard. He gripped Fili and tossed him aside as though he weighed nothing, and wrenched Dwalin’s arms from underneath Talia’s.

“Talia, stop,” he urged, gripping her upper arms. “Stop, breathe, look at me.”

She instantly came to a halt and stared up at him. Rage burned in the dark blue depths of her eyes.

Dwalin stepped back.

Kili rolled off the desk and quietly rose to his feet, staying where he was.

Alfrid remained on his back on the floor.

Bilbo returned from the cafeteria with a coffee in each hand, and froze on the spot.

The whole room had gone silent.

Nobody moved a muscle.

“Breathe,” he repeated in a soft whisper.

He calmly held her gaze, inwardly questioning if she was going to turn her fury onto him, as he realised that it wasn’t his wife who stared back at him.

It was her inner killer.

“It was a stupid mistake,” he said, still in a whisper. “We will fix it.”

Thorin’s eyes darted between the two, wondering if his detective would be successful in dousing the fire or if she’d explode and lash out at him.

Not one person dared budge an inch.

Her head slowly turned and she stared down at the cop on the floor. She didn’t say anything, just stared coldly at him. Slowly turning back, she shrugged out of Thranduil’s hold and took Tasha from Bard. Not a word was said as she sat back down at her desk, settling the youngster on her lap and giving her a cookie.

Thorin broke the deathly silence as he stepped further into the room. “Alfrid, get your arse up off the floor and into my office,” he barked. “You lot – get back to work.”

The shamed officer dragged himself to his feet, staggering out of the room with his cheeks scarlet, both from shame and from where she’d walloped him. Thorin locked gazes with Thranduil before following him, and the silence fell over everyone again as he left.

“Talk about a stupid move,” Bard sighed. His eyes darted between his partner, Tasha, and Talia. “You guys alright?”

Thranduil glanced at Talia, who nodded once and concentrated on her computer, typing with one hand as she kept a hold of her child. “Yes.”

“Fucking idiot thing to do,” Bofur muttered as he picked up a few chairs and righted them.

“I concur,” Nori said. “I didn’t even see him give her the gun.”

Everyone sat down again, leaving only Thranduil remaining on his feet.

Tasha munched her cookie. “Mama,” she said.

“Yeah, Babygirl?”

“I stay wiv Dada tonight,” she said.

Talia looked down at her. Her head was tipped back to look up at her mother, her baby ice blue eyes innocent and pleading. Her heart melted, and she glanced up at Thranduil.

He swallowed. “I don’t mind,” he said softly.

She pursed her mouth and nodded. “Ok.”

Bard smiled a little. Maybe the little one would be the catalyst to bring her parents back onto an even ground again.

*****

Thranduil’s evening had turned out to be a joyous one for him to remember.

He’d taken his daughter home after work, a part of him wondering whether Talia would change her mind or not at the last minute. But she hadn’t; she’d simply kissed her child and made her promise to behave.

The little one had almost burst with excitement upon her arrival home, tearing through the house after Legolas, screeching and laughing with joy. Thranduil had busied himself preparing something to eat for them all, as his offspring had jointly destroyed at least two rooms in the house. Poor Tauriel tried frantically to right everything as they went, but brother and sister were in a world of their own as they crashed from room to room.

“She’s a bundle of energy,” Legolas remarked much later.

Tauriel had gone off to bed to read a book, and the two males sat downstairs in the lounge. Tasha was sound asleep, completely worn out from her evening of high-jinks and destruction.

Thranduil smiled as he sipped his coffee. “And I wouldn’t have her any other way,” he answered.

“Was I like that?”

He laughed. “Not  _ quite  _ like that. You were more sedate, although you had your moments,” he told him. “I think Tasha takes her energy from Talia.”

“Things not improving between you two?” his son asked, a tone of sympathy in his voice.

“No, but they are not becoming any worse either,” he answered. “There’s a lot on both sides, son, not just on one side. We both have our faults, we were both right and both wrong at the same time. And I think she knows that, as I do.” He glanced over. “But admitting it is another thing entirely.”

Legolas nodded slowly. “You’re both very similar,” he acknowledged.

Both blondes turned as Thranduil’s cell phone shrilled.

“Yes,” he said, connecting the call.

“Hey Thran,” the voice on the other end greeted him. “Uh…bad news, buddy…your wife’s here and she’s causing an uproar.”

Thranduil heaved a deep sigh. The caller was an acquaintance of his, a bar manager by the name of Gary. He ran one of the bars down on the south side of the city. “I’ll head over,” he said wearily. “Thankyou, Gary.”

“No problem, man,” he replied, and the short conversation ended.

Thranduil turned to Legolas, who lifted one eyebrow in expectation.

“Are you alright to stay here and keep an eye on your sister? Talia’s in a bar downtown starting a riot,” he said.

His son nodded. “Of course. I’ll be fine. Go bring her home.”

It was a tired man who rose up from the couch and trudged over to retrieve his car keys. The fact that she had wound up in a bar meant two things. One – a shitload of trouble, and two – she was very probably drunk.

Neither seemed to hold any appeal as her troubled husband made his way outside and into the SUV. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before starting the engine, the car easing out of the driveway with a low purr.

Street lights flashed past in a blur as he sped through the city, heading towards the bar where she was currently located. He wasn’t looking forward to the upcoming task, and cursed softly under his breath as his large hands turned the steering wheel in a smooth movement. His mind flipped into fast-forward, and he turned on the AC to cool the inside of the vehicle. A bottle of water lay in the small chilled compartment in the lower section of the dash. Two packs of wet baby wipes were already in the car; one packet tucked into the driver’s door, the other in the front passenger’s door. Having Tasha in the car made sure that both parents were prepared for anything at any time.

He pulled up outside the bar and took a deep breath as he stopped the vehicle. The engine went silent and he stepped out onto the street, circling around behind it and entering the building.

Moments later the doors crashed open and he walked out of the establishment with Talia slung fireman-style over one shoulder, half conscious and  _ very  _ drunk. She offered no resistance as he opened the front passenger door and carefully deposited her onto the seat. He reached across her and fastened her seat belt, and she opened her eyes and gazed at him.

He hesitated, reading the conflicting emotions that lurked behind the dark blue. Shaking his head, he withdrew and closed the door before going back around and climbing in at his own side.

Gary wouldn’t give him any grief over the incident, he was confident of the fact. One of his bartenders had hit on Talia and she’d ignored him until he’d grabbed her ass. One beer bottle and a few punches followed, leaving the stunned barman on his back on the floor. Someone had tried to intervene and ended up in a heap on top of the billiards table, so Gary had decided that Thranduil was the only one who could break it apart without bringing any unnecessary attention. Unfortunately, by the time he’d arrived, a full-blown fight had already broken out, and she was nursing a bruise on her cheek as a result.

They were only half a mile from the scene when she lurched upright in her seat.

“Stop the car,” she said, panic in her words. “Thranduil, stop the car!”

He slammed the brakes on and screeched to a halt as she flipped her seat belt off and threw her door open. Both moved at the same time; he flew out of his side as she lurched out of hers, landing on her knees on the street.

Her stomach emptied itself as she retched and vomited, coughing and choking against her gag reflex. The world around her spun in circles, and she braced both hands flat on the ground to steady herself as she violently threw up.

A strong arm slid across her chest to support her weight, and a gentle hand swept her long hair into a grip between her shoulder blades. Nothing was said, and the only sounds were what she was making and the occasional passing car.

Her retching seemed to go on forever, and she was heaving for breath as she collapsed wearily. Thranduil released her hair and reached over for the baby wipes. Pulling several free, he used the cool tissues to wipe her face with gentle, soothing movements. The night air chilled her skin against the moisture, and she gulped back a swallow. She heard the click of a bottle top, and turned her head away as the top pressed gently against her parched mouth.

“Take a drink,” his calm voice told her. “You need fluids, Talia. Take a drink.”

With him holding the back of her head in one large hand, she complied, and ended up gulping several mouthfuls of the ice cold water. Her hand gripped a fistful of his shirt and she held on to him for dear life.

His anxious eyes searched her face as he withdrew the water bottle, and he closed it before settling it back into the door panel. The next thing she knew, he’d lifted her bridal-style and sat her back inside the car, re-fastening her seat belt as before and securing her. That was the last thing she was aware of before she blacked out.

*****

Legolas looked up from where he sat on the bottom step of the curved stairway, playing a game on his cell phone. “Oh, Dad,” he murmered, rising to his feet.

Thranduil shook his head and stepped over the threshold. Talia was a dead weight in his arms, her head hung back over his elbow and her long hair swept past his knees as he moved. “At least she is home,” he said.

His son moved to close the door, and settled a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll give you a hand,” he said, and hurried before him up to the first floor. He opened the door to the master bedroom and turned the quilt back on the bed.

“Thanks, son. I’ll be alright,” he said. “I will stay with her through the night in case she’s sick again.” One knee braced against the soft mattress as he leaned over and placed her on the bed, with so much care and tenderness in his touch. He turned to his child as he stood again. “Honestly. I will be fine.”

Legolas nodded after holding his gaze for a few moments. “Just give me a shout if you need me,” he said, and gently bounced his fist against his father’s upper arm as he turned and left the room.

The door closed behind him.

Thranduil went through to the adjoining bathroom and emerged with an empty basin which he placed on the floor, and one with cold water and a face cloth. He set the half full one on the bedside unit and lowered himself to sit on the bed at Talia’s side.

It might prove to be a long, sleepless night.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

Talia groaned and rolled onto her back. One hand lifted to settle on her forehead, and she frowned. Her eyes were still closed and had a distinct gritty feeling. Her head was thumping, she felt dizzy, and her stomach felt queasy. She tried to swallow, but her throat was parched.

She slowly opened her eyes and squinted at the ceiling above her.

A movement drew her attention, and she turned her head carefully.

Thranduil uncrossed his legs and shifted in the armchair in the corner. “How do you feel?”

His soft voice washed over her.

“A bit sick,” she rasped, and pushed herself into a sitting position. He stood up and crossed the room, sitting down on the edge of the bed and handing her a glass of water that had been placed on the bedside unit.

“Drink some of this,” he suggested. “Your stomach will settle.”

She complied, one shaky hand taking the glass from him. “Thankyou,” she murmered. The liquid felt cool and refreshing as she swallowed.

“Do you want something to eat just now, or would you prefer to wait?”

She shook her head. “No…I couldn’t stomach anything right now,” she answered. Her eyes remained focused away from his.

A heavy silence settled for a few minutes.

“I’ll prepare the shower for you,” he said eventually, and moved off the bed.

Her eyes tracked his movements as he went over to the bathroom and disappeared inside. Heaving a deep sigh, she replaced the glass, reluctantly swung herself from the bed and padded after him. At some point during the night he’d removed her jeans and sneakers, giving her more comfort in her state of unconsciousness.

“Fresh towels are on the side unit, and the water should be at a reasonable temperature,” he told her as she appeared at his back. One hand was under the shower spray, testing the warmth of the spray. He withdrew and dried his hand, walking past her back into the bedroom. “I will make you a coffee while you shower.”

He left the room without saying anything more, so she stripped out of her remaining clothes and stepped inside the spacious cubicle. The water felt warm and soothing as she cleansed herself and washed her hair, mentally rinsing away her heartache at the same time.

Memories flooded through her mind as she washed; memories of showering with him, soaping his back, washing his hair, him washing her, the two of them making love against the tiled wall. Memories of wrapping each other in a huge bath towel and stumbling through to the bed, kissing and giggling as they bumped into things.

She closed her eyes and lowered her head as she braced both hands against the wall in front of her. Hot tears cascaded down her cheeks, and she sunk her teeth into her lower lip to mask the deep-seated urge to give in and howl her anguish and pain.

“You cry tears that you can hide because you do not wish for me to see,” his gentle voice said, and she immediately straightened and turned towards him.

He stood just outside the cubicle, holding a fluffy towel ready for her. His eyes held hers, but held not a single trace of judgement or hostility. Her lower lip trembled slightly, and his eyes dropped to her mouth at the slight movement.

“Come here, little kitty,” he said softly.

She turned the water off and slowly stepped towards him, and he opened his arms holding the towel out for her. It wrapped around her as he enclosed her in a tight hug, crushing her against his chest as she allowed her tears to flow freely. Her hands gripped fistfuls of his t-shirt and her body trembled in his hold.

“Nothing has been broken to the point that we cannot fix it,” he whispered. His warm hands rubbed her back in gentle, loving caresses. “I promise, we can fix it.”

Her sobbing increased, as did her grip on his clothing. The last week had been hell for her, and she had nobody else to blame for her stubbornness except herself. It wasn’t Thranduil’s fault, it wasn’t Gandalf’s fault.

It was hers, and hers alone.

His strong chest expanded against her as he inhaled a deep breath. “Let me dry you,” he murmered.

He gently turned her and walked backwards with her, taking slow, measured steps. Once they reached the bed, he lifted a smaller towel with one hand and rubbed it over her long hair, his other arm still tightly around her. Once the excess water had been removed, he pulled her down to sit beside him and handed her the mug of hot black coffee that he’d prepared.

She gripped it with both hands, still with a slight tremble. He kissed the top of her head and turned his own so that his cheek rested against her hair. Both arms still remained around her, holding her against his chest. Neither of them spoke for a long time, just breathing quietly as they allowed the silence to begin healing their hearts.

“I was wrong,” she said softly, breaking the stillness.

He didn’t respond straight away. “We both were,” he said eventually.

Her head lifted from his chest and she gazed up at him through bloodshot eyes. “I should have told you about Gandalf’s request.”

Ice blue eyes held hers, again without judgement. “I said things that I should never have thought, let alone said aloud.”

“But you were right.”

Her admission broke his heart a little more.

“No. I should  _ not  _ have brought up how we met,” he insisted. A deep sigh followed and he tilted his head back, staring up at the ceiling for a few moments. “The day we met was the best day of my life,” he stated as he lowered it to look at her again. “I would not change it for anything in the world. If I could go back through time, I would still have fallen in love with you. I would still have committed my life to yours. I would still have forged the unbreakable bond which we have. Nothing in this world or any other could ever change that, Talia. Nothing.”

“But you’re right about the mistrust.”

He shook his head. “I was angry. I was lashing out. I was intentionally trying to hurt you the way I was hurting, and that was  _ wrong.  _ You did not with-hold the truth from me to hurt me; you did it to protect me, and to stop me from worrying. I should not have said the things that I did.”

“I deserved it,” she said quietly, and tucked her head back under his chin. The warmth of his body absorbed into hers, settling her somewhat. “There’s nothing I can’t talk to you about, nothing I can’t tell you, nothing I wouldn’t trust you with. You’re the other half of me, so I had no reason to keep it to myself and lie about it.”

He breathed quietly for a few moments, the only movement being his hand as he slowly rubbed it up and down her back through the damp towel. “What I said has probably undone everything which I have tried to instil in you regarding letting go of the past and moving on,” he murmered. “And for that, I am  _ truly  _ sorry. I love you, Talia, I should not have tried to hurt you in such ways.”

She snuggled even closer to him; almost an impossible task as he cradled her as tightly as possible. The reassuring thump-thump of his heart worked wonders on her fragile soul.

“I told you a long time ago that I would never let you go,” he said, still speaking in low, soft tones. “And I stand true to that. I will  _ never  _ be without you again. I will not let the path of our lives come in between us. I made that promise then, and I hold steady on it, and always will. We are here for each other, through the good  _ and _ the bad, not only the good. What we have is precious and rare; I will not allow anything to fracture or break that.”

“I love you,” she whispered. “I don’t deserve you, but I love you so much.”

“You deserve far more than I could ever give you,” he replied. “I would not be here if it was not for you. Remember that. Take strength from it. Look at our daughter, and remember that she too would not be here if it was not for you. What you were is what has made us what we are.”

His words tumbled around in her mind. “Maybe there’s something in that,” she said after a while.

“There is,” he replied. “It is the truth. Neither of us would be right here, right now. Tasha would not have existed. Everything as we know it would have changed considerably. You cannot argue the fact.”

“No,” she mumbled into his clothing. Taking a sip of her coffee, she settled back against him. “I want to stay here like this forever.”

Her whisper made him smile, and he pressed another kiss to the top of her head. “If I could make it so, then believe me, little kitty - I would,” he told her. “However, that delightful menace that we created will be up and around soon, and you need something to eat. Legolas and Tauriel will be getting up too. Plus you should get into your pyjamas. Have something to eat and go back to sleep for a while.”

She sighed. “I might,” she agreed. “But I slept for hours.”

“A state of drunken unconsciousness does not equal the rest derived from sleep,” he pointed out, shifting and depositing her on the bed as he stood. “Why did you do what you did last night?”

Her cheeks took on a pink hue at his genuinely curious question, and she looked down at the carpet. “I just wanted to escape for a while,” she answered quietly. “I was tired. I missed you. I was carrying a lot of regrets. I just wanted to kick back and cut everything the fuck loose for one night – forget everything around me, forget my responsibilities, forget everything.”

Warm fingers tipped her chin up so she would look at him. “Did it work?”

“No.”

He inhaled through his nose as he gazed down into her troubled eyes. “Perhaps it did,” he said thoughtfully. “You were not in a place where you could push me away. Your defences were completely down, allowing me close enough to make a difference. Perhaps last night was not so wrong after all. Even though there are undoubtedly a few sore faces and bruised egos scattered across the city this morning.” One side of his mouth lifted in a smirk of amusement, and she gave a small embarrassed chuckle.

“Well that dumb-ass wouldn’t take no for an answer,” she said. “He’s lucky I didn’t cut his bloody hand off.”

“For which I am certain he will be eternally grateful,” he responded, releasing his touch and moving towards the bedroom door. “Put your pyjamas on and settle back into bed, my darling. I’ll make something to eat and bring it up.”

The door closed behind him as he disappeared, leaving her alone, wondering if she had what it took to give him what he deserved in life.

*****

The carpet felt soft against Talia’s bare feet as she padded downstairs. The sounds of her child screaming and laughing made her smile as she descended the stairs, and she followed the racket through to the large lounge.

“Hey, Talia,” Tauriel greeted her. The redhead stood with her arms folded, watching the carnage unfold before her.

Legolas was walking around on the floor on his knees with a lampshade on his head, making noises that sounded as though they belonged to some sort of deranged gorilla. “I am the monster from the deep!” he roared, waddling around.

Tasha screeched and flew behind Tauriel, grabbing her legs and peering out from behind them. “Monster!” she yelled. “Dada! Shoot monster!”

Thranduil rolled his eyes and uncrossed his legs, sliding his laptop onto the couch and crossing over to his wife. “Welcome to Monster Mayhem,” he murmered, brushing his mouth over hers in a welcoming kiss.

“Mama!” Abandoning her grip on Tauriel, the little one hurtled across the floor, avoiding her brother who was waving his arms as though he was attempting to land an aircraft. “Mamaaaaaa!”

Talia grinned as she scooped her daughter into her arms and kissed her. “Are you fighting the monsters?” she asked, settling her on one hip.

“No. Dada shoot the monsters,” she replied. “Naughty monsters. Greedy monsters! Eat my cookies!”

“How you managed to sleep through this nonsense, I will never know,” her father said dryly. “They have been at it for almost an hour. My oldest child seems to think that he hatched from a cave deep in some dark underworld.”

She laughed. “With that thing on his head, I’m inclined to agree with him,” she remarked. “How long was I asleep?”

“Three hours,” he replied, and guided his two girls over towards the couch. “Legolas, in the name of all that is sacred to mankind, take that god forsaken thing off your head and put it back where it belongs. You look ridiculous enough at best without adding to it.”

“Gee, thanks a lot, Dad!” his son huffed as he scrambled to his feet. “I’m going to make a coffee. Talia?”

“Please,” she answered with a grin.

He gave up trying to re-affix the lamp shade and tossed to it Tauriel, who laughed as she reconnected it in seconds, then followed him through to the kitchen.

“I went out on an errand while you were sleeping,” Thranduil said, turning his head towards his wife. Ice blue eyes held hers, causing her heart to skip a beat.

“Oh?”

He grinned. “I went to the hotel and collected yours and Tasha’s belongings,” he said. “I hope that is alright.”

She smiled and nodded. “Of course it is. Although I could have done it later.”

He snorted. “I did not wish to give you the time to reconsider your options. Besides, the kids were driving me crazy. I had to get out and get some air. Legolas decided to overturn this very couch and use it as shelter against an incoming zombie attack. He and his menace of a sister pelted me with cushions as I came back indoors.”

Her head tipped back as she laughed heartily, the sound warming his insides.

Tasha yawned in her arms and snuggled into her side.

Talia looked at her husband, her gaze focused on his full, sensual mouth before lifting to his eyes. “I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too,” he whispered back, and closed the gap between them.

“Uh…do y’all want us to go out?” Legolas asked, appearing in the doorway.

His father pulled back with a sigh of irritation. “Go out if that is what you wish,” he replied.

His oldest child blinked. “Um…ok, the kettle’s on…I think Tauriel and I will jump over to the library,” he decided. “I want to do a little research on one of the weapons our excavation team found.”

Thranduil didn’t answer, but the muscle in his jaw tensed visibly as he lowered his eyes to the cushion in between himself and Talia.

“I’ll prep some dinner for when you guys get back,” she said after a few seconds’ awkward silence.

A few minutes later, the two young adults left the property.

Talia looked at her husband. “Was it something we said?” she asked, half joking.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “No.”

“Then what was it?” She shifted their sleeping child onto the rug and arranged cushions around her to protect her if she rolled over, with one under her head for comfort. “I feel like I stepped onto a landmine or something.”

Thranduil’s mood had altered, and she could feel it.

“He’s just being an ass,” he sighed.

She threw a questioning glance over her shoulder as she made her way into the kitchen. “Do you want a cuppa while I finish what he started?” She reached into the overhead unit for another cup, fully expecting him to say yes.

A gasp left her as warm hands slid around her waist and under the hem of her pyjama top, his body pressing against her back. “A coffee is  _ not  _ what I wish for right now,” he whispered huskily. His mouth touched her neck, dropping kisses down towards her shoulder. “We have been so close, yet so far this last week. I have seen you on a daily basis, yet could not touch you. Or kiss you. Or taste you.” His mouth moved back up her neck to her ear. “I need to fuck you,” he whispered harshly. “I am  _ so  _ hard for you, Talia. I need to feel your legs around me. I need to feel you tighten around me, to take all of me, to fuck me until I cannot put words together.”

Her insides clenched painfully at his erotic words, and she turned in his arms. Her arms slid up over his broad shoulders as his mouth crushed against hers with savage passion. His tongue demanded entrance, determined to stake his claim on her, to brand her as his and only his. Strong hands lifted her and placed her up on the worktop, and insistently tugged her strappy pyjama top down. Settling on the full mounds of flesh he’d freed, a deep sigh rumbled through his chest as his thumbs rubbed lazily over already hard nipples. “Oh yes,” he gasped. “Oh fuck…yesss…”

Her back arched towards him and his magical hands and her legs crossed over his thighs in an effort to pull him closer. The throbbing hardness between his legs pushed with determination into the cradle of her spread thighs, making both of them gasp.

“These need to come off,” she panted against his mouth, her hands dropping to his jeans and frantically undoing the button.

“As do these,” he whispered. His large hands gripped the fabric of her pyjama shorts and tore them. A loud ripping sound filled the air and they both giggled. Those giggles soon turned to moans as he nudged his leaking tip against her opening, finding heat, moisture, and comfort as he pushed inside.

“Oh good God yesssssss,” he hissed between clenched teeth. “Oh  _ fuuuuck… _ ”

“More, Thranduil, more,” she gasped. Her fingers wound through handfuls of his long hair and she tugged hard. “I need more…”

Deep, rapid thrusts of his hips took both of them towards a state of euphoric bliss at speed. Hungry mouths devoured each other, hands groped and squeezed. Arms and legs entwined to tighten their physical connection. Hot gasps and whimpers of pleasure surrounded them. Talia’s back thudded against the cupboard door in an expeditious rhythm, gaining speed with every forward thrust that he drove into her.

His hands lowered to grip her hips, ever aware of his impending orgasm that was steadily approaching.

“Talia, I need to come,” he gasped breathlessly. “I need to fire deep inside you…oh my God…I’m coming…”

She cried helplessly into his hot, desperate kisses as her own climax peaked out and tipped her over the edge. Contractions ripped through her entire body, and the convulsions triggered his release. An animalistic roar came from the depths of his soul as he emptied everything he had into her. His orgasm went on and on before he finally sagged his weight against her. His head lowered to rest against her shoulder and she leaned fully into his body, still quivering.

His shoulders began to quake under her arms, and she lifted her head.

“What’s funny?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I missed you,” he replied with a smile. “I  _ really  _ missed you.”

She chuckled and touched her mouth to his. “I missed you too, Blondie.”


End file.
